Worst Set Ever Created: 1998 Pacific Online?

While working on my Red Sox Collection on Saturday night, I came across this 1998 Pacific Online Dennis Eckersley card. Is it me, or is this perhaps one of the worst sets ever created? This set featured 800 cards — 780 different players — each card featuring the Web site dedicated to that player. For Eckersley we’re talking about http://players.bigleaguers.com/Dennis_Eckersley.html. Don’t bother trying to visit that URL, I’ve already tried it … it no longer exists.

I guess in 1998, we as a nation were still learning about the World Wide Web. Hell, most of us were still using America On-Line, paying like $39.99 a month for slow-speed Internet and trading cards through the message boards there.

It should be noted that as I write this, I lugged out my Beckett Almanac to see if there are any parallels and there actually were … and this Eck card is one of them. There were versions with red foil, and then the “Web Cards,” which is what this card is. On the back of the card there is a serial number printed in the top right corner that could have been entered into some sort of search engine on Pacific’s Web site for a chance to win an “upgraded” version, according to Beckett. (Note: “web” cards have gold foil, where as regular cards have silver.) I wonder what those “Upgrade” cards looked like? There is no picture or listing for them in the Almanac.